Flashback was one of the biggest selling games of its time. This sci-fi adventure used cinematic cutscenes and fluid rotoscoped animation to tell the story of a student named Conrad who has his memory wiped after uncovering an alien conspiracy. It has sold millions of copies on a range of platforms, and after hitting the App Store recently, it may go on to sell thousands more.
But who benefits from Flashback's revival? The company that originally developed it, Delphine Software, went out of business in 2004, leaving Flashback as abandoned software, or "abandonware". Nobody actually owns the license anymore, which means anyone with the skill to make a port can bring it out on the iPhone.
Flashback actually operates within a shell.
Manomio LLC, a two-person company that has declared their dedication to reviving classic games on the iPhone, was the first out of the gate with its $4.99 version of Flashback for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Specifically, the app is an iPhone port of REminiscene, a freely available rewrite of the original Flashback engine designed to play on multiple platforms and distributed under the Gnu General Public License. When you buy Manomio's version of Flashback, you actually are buying a Flashback player that downloads the game files from any of a number of abandonware sites on the Internet.
It's a bit of what Stuart Carnie, CTO of Manomio, calls Apple's "gray area".
"Apple wants to retain control of the App Store" by limiting the capacity of an application to download and run programs from the Internet, Carnie said. You generally can't download programs within apps, which allows Apple to keep companies like Microsoft or Adobe from creating content that competes with its own software. It seems Manomio's Flashback app can get away with operating in this gray area because it only downloads one thing--the game's original assets--and those assets are free and clear for anyone to use.
Although Manomio tried to acquire the rights to Flashback themselves, they found that these rights no longer exist.
"We contacted Paul Cuisset, founder of Delphine, and asked how we could do this with him," Manomio CEO Brian Lyscarz explained. "But he told us the legal IPs were lost during bankruptcy, and that they had no commercial interest in the game. As the game has been on abandonware sites for a decade now without any claims, we consider the Amiga version as abandonware."
This first attempt at remaking Flashback for the iPhone has some problems (read our full review), but Manomio is planning to update it quickly to address concerns about the controls and other issues. They are even open to the idea of others selling their own version of Flashback.
"Personally, I think it would be nice if someone could do it even better than us," Lyscarz said. "We just wanted the game out there for the fans to play it. We did a lot of work making it work on iPhone, and think it´s fair to charge for this."
Both Lyscarz and Carnie expect that Flashback will be their first and last abandonware title.
"Flashback is our first game," Carnie said. "The only reason we did Flashback first was because it was a popular game. We have a few more titles in the works. We're in deals with a couple of large companies with this process, so we have to keep those under wraps until we can secure those deals. Another release is hopefully coming soon."
For future titles, Manomio expects to secure the rights, or at least consent, of the developers. "I think it´s important to assure that you don´t conflict with copyrights in general--but at some point, even games should be considered public," Lyscarz said.
"We have a port of Another World/Out of this World internally, too, and could easily post it," Lyscarz added. "We´re in contact with Eric Chahi, who still has the rights for this game, and do not want to violate those. If he´ll accept our proposal to launch it together, we´ll see it on the App Store soon."
The App Store has clearly given developers a golden opportunity to cash in on abandoned titles. Flashback may be the first major abandonware game to receive a new home on the App Store, but gamers should not be surprised to see other notable abandoned games ported as well. They should proceed with caution, though -- without a license-holder to guarantee the quality of these games, it's buyer beware.
Notable Abandonware Games
A surprising number of classic titles are available for free to download on the web, claiming to be abandonware. Remember, just because a site claims that one of these games is abandonware, doesn't mean it actually is.
With many big names on this list, it's understandable why abandonware is considered a "gray area," both by rightsholders and developers alike.
SimCity (1989)
Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego (1991)
Prince of Persia 1 and 2 (1990, 1993)
Dune (1992)
Warcraft: Orcs and Humans (1994)
Dungeon Master (1989)
Populous (1989)
[Courtesy of http://www.Abandonline.com and http://www.abandonwaredos.com]
6 Comments
Warcraft? Really? o.o That could mean big money... heck, Blizzard should be porting that over!
Read that last bit carefully; there's no guarantee that the license-holder wouldn't sue.
The point Andrew's making is that this stuff is currently being distributed for free on the Internet, and nobody's trying to stop it. Companies like Ubi and EA have immense legal resources, and yet they've taken no action on this stuff.
To be sure, some of the games on the list are risky. Take Prince of Persia, for instance. Ubisoft owns the rights to the Prince of Persia IP, but does their agreement cover the code of the original game?
It most likely does, and if it were to appear on the iPhone, they'd almost certainly take action against it, as it would start making money hand over fist.
Dune, Populous, and Carmen Sandiego? Who knows what the status of that IP is, and whether anyone is paying attention.
The distinction here is that abandonware is software that no longer has ownership. The rights to that property have been forfeited as a result of bankruptcy in the case of Flashback, at least according to Manomio.
Take note that the Manomio team has gone to great lengths to ensure that the titles they do port are, indeed, in the public realm.
Just because no one is suing or you haven't been caught doesn't mean that you're not breaking the law. That includes copyright infringement.
Steve P. is right.
kelvin is wrong.
If you look in the US Copyright statutes NOWHERE will you find the term 'abandonware.' It is in no way a legal distinction.
As of a change in the Copyright laws back in the early 80s there is no way to "lose copyright" through inaction. Copyright accrues to the creator on creation and remains with the creator unless the creator takes a conscious act to transfer that ownership.
In the case of a corporation, the work may have been paid for by the corporation, in which case the corporation owns it as a "work for hire" or the creators may have transferred their rights to the corporation after the creation of the IP.
When a corporation dissolves in bankruptcy, ALL assets get transferred to the debtors in lieu of the money owed them.
So, in this case, its lieley that one of the debtors of Delphine owns the rights. They may not realize that fact (or they may.)
But the important thing is this: UNLESS a copyright expires or it is purposefully placed in public domain by its owner, copyrighted works don't suddenly just become legal to for others to copy.
By the way...
Apparently Manomio understands this very well as if you read the fine print you will see that they take great pains to NOT distribute the bits to the actual game themselves:
"When you buy Manomio's version of Flashback, you actually are buying a Flashback player that downloads the game files from any of a number of abandonware sites on the Internet."
What this leaves me wondering is this... how do they represent this on the App Store? If they mislead people to believe they are buying Flashback, than its probably fraud as the purchaser is NOT buying a license to run Flashback. What they are buying is an Amiga emulator that downloads an illegal copy of Flashback.
Take a deep breath, people. Trademarks are worth nothing if the trademark owner doesn't take action and claim their rights, when they are clearly broken. See it as a tacit agreement of sorts.
Hense, if a trademark is in public domain and used by third parties for years without the trademark owner taking legal action, they have made no effort to uphold the trademark and it is no longer theirs.
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